Impact Of Slavery On African American Imperialism

Essay Title

Over the course of history, there has been an undeniable link between imperialism and slavery. Empires depended upon the labor of captives to consolidate their power and support their agriculture, architecture, infrastructure, and more. In the 17th and 18th century, at the peak of the transatlantic slave trade, thousands of African people were forcibly transported from the African coast to Europe and the Americas. It is important to study the benefits which European empires reaped from slavery, but equally important to assess the long-lasting impact of slavery on African societies. The actions of European slave traders led to resistance and rebellion, but also caused additional internal warring amongst African societies; the effects of the warring left African societies with poverty, instability, and gender disparity which still impact them today. / The presence of the European slave trade changed the nature of slavery, warfare, weaponry, and gender within African societies.

Before the rising influence of the transatlantic slave trade, a unified “African” identity did not yet exist. Across the continent of Africa,

Before European influence, Africa had its own well-established slave routes, including courses across the Sahara Desert and along the Nile. One of the key distinguishing factors of intra-African slavery was that it was often either a byproduct of warring, or used as a form of punishment or payment of debt. Essentially, pre-European slavery in Africa was not implicitly permanent or hereditary. Temporary slavery could be used as punishment for crimes, slaves could sometimes work to earn their freedom, and children born to slaves did not automatically become slaves themselves. Many slaves were prisoners of war who had been captured in